Chris Girardot, founder of RavenHook Bakehouse, is making fresh bread a household staple all over D.C. He continues bringing his baking to American University’s weekly farmers market.
“Just having such a close community within the bakery has allowed for so many different experiences, and for the community to have availability to these foods as well,” said Chelsea Taylor, SIS Masters’ student and current employee of RavenHook Bakehouse.
RavenHook Bakehouse will return to AU’s farmers market for its spring reopening on Feb. 26. Girardot holds the AU Farmers Market in a special place in his heart; he has been servicing the market since the beginning of his farmers’ market tenure in 2009.
“It's crazy, people really come to us expecting and waiting for us, for our products. RavenHook is just such a great bakery to have. I think it's just wonderful to have that type of business here in DC,” Taylor said.
Girardot moved to D.C. in 1987 to work for Corona Beer but felt misaligned with the industry.
“Let's put it this way: back in the late 80s, the beer and wine industry was full of drunks and crooks,” Girardot joked.
Girardot worked at The Learning Annex, an adult education company, until its closing in 1997, which is when he was introduced to the culinary world through Uptown Bakers, located in Maryland.
Upon starting work with Uptown Bakers, Girardot was hooked.
“I just was enchanted,” Girardot said. “I was like, ‘Oh, my God. This is how you make cookies?’ I mean, I was so impressed.”
In 1996, Girardot moved to the bakery at one of the first D.C. Whole Foods grocery stores. Girardot spent eight years with Whole Foods while also attending the L'Academie de Cuisine in D.C, which, after 41 years, closed in 2017.
“I learned all of this stuff about what commercial bakeries put in their products versus what Whole Foods allowed us to put in the products,” he said. “We only could use real ingredients. We couldn't use artificial flavorings, artificial colors, or shortening.”
Eventually, Girardot left Whole Foods to establish his own baking consulting business with Upper Crust Bakery. Girardot developed a program to send carbon breads – breads that are sold raw and baked on the premises – to Whole Foods Markets in the DMV. Today, Girardot’s partner at Upper Crust Bakery is now the main supplier of artisan breads for Whole Foods across the country.
Girardot joined Occasions Caterers in 2007 as a pastry chef, where he refined his French pastry and European baking skills. Girardot catered for numerous political events, including both President Obama inaugurations, and met Nancy Pelosi and Al Franken. Working with Occasions Caterers refined his skills while also having the ability to work regular hours, in comparison with grocery store hours.
“I was building a family. I had young kids,” Girardot said. “I didn't like the working weekends and working all of the crazy hours at the grocery store.”
Breaking into the Farmers’ Market Industry
Girardot met Dan Donahue, owner of Agora Farms, during his time at Upper Crust Bakery. Donahue sold some of his produce at Brookland Market in the Brookland neighborhood and was struggling to turn a profit when Girardot recommended that Donahue add a bakery vendor with fresh bread and sweets.
“I just wanted to make it a little bit better because a lot of the farmers' markets where I was shopping didn't have good bread,” Girardot said.
Girardot convinced Upper Crust Bakery to provide him with bread to sell at the Brookland Market. Over the years, the demand for bread at Donahue’s markets grew. Donahue asked Girardot to expand to his other markets that were lacking baked goods, such as AU and Eastern Market.
Despite having a full-time job at Upper Crust Bakery, Girardot jumped at the offer, baking bread at Upper Crust and the pastries in his kitchen. The limited supply of quality bread with real ingredients in D.C. markets and food stores motivated Girardot to be the change he wished to see.
“We put our name on it to be good, and it needs to be of high quality, the best we can put out,” Girardot said. “We do it every day, and it's not easy. If you don't have a sense of quality and a standard, then people will start to do the easiest thing that's possible.”
Girardot joined the Bread Bakers Guild of America in 2004, further feeding his passion for quality baking. Established in the 1990s, the Guild seeks to mimic the baking standards of those in the European baking world.
“My philosophy always has been baking with real ingredients. I think it probably is from my experience at Whole Foods,” said Girardot.
The Guild’s mission is to support artisan bakers and provide education and training on sustainable, healthy and quality baking. In Europe, guilds such as Bread Bakers are sponsored by the government, raising the standard for natural ingredients.
“There, the government really supports artisan cooking, artisan breads,” Girardot said. “And we don't do that here. We support oil companies and pharmaceuticals.”
After the expansion to Eastern Market and AU proved to be a success, Girardot received invitations to other larger markets. In 2012, Girardot expanded to farmers' markets in Columbia Heights and Arlington. Now, Girardot bakes and delivers his goods to over 18 markets per week.
“It has taken quite a lot of organization. There's an awful lot of logistics in there. Sending fresh bread to the market every day requires us to do things a little bit different than if we had a store,” Girardot said.
Where does RavenHook bake? Stint at Union Market
In 2014, Girardot moved RavenHook to their own commercial kitchen in Northeast D.C., where it still is today. Ravenhook originally shared the 4,000-square-foot space with three other small businesses, but its growth allowed Girardot to have the entire commercial kitchen to himself, equipped with a state-of-the-art German stone deck oven.
“It is fantastic. I love it,” Girardot said. “And the breads have been better than ever.”
RavenHook served a short stint at Union Market, opening a brick-and-mortar bakery right before the COVID-19 lockdown. With Union Market being more popular among tourists rather than D.C. residents and regular customers, Girardot felt that he couldn’t sell the types of goods he wanted. 3.5 million people visit Union Market annually.
“Our farmers market sales were 85 percent regular weekly customers, Union Market was exactly the opposite,” Girardot said.
The bakery was mostly stocked with pastries and other to-go items, but less of the artisan bread Girardot was always passionate about. After the COVID-19 lockdown, RavenHook closed its shop at Union Market.
At the same time, Ravenhook began their Uber Eats and Near delivery services, available from 12 p.m. to 6 p.m., Monday through Friday. Near provides fresh bread to any address in D.C. for a flat delivery fee of $5.
Reminiscing on over 20 years with RavenHook Bakehouse in business, Girardot credits Donahue with kickstarting his farmers’ market bakery. Donahue passed away in December 2024.
“Even at Eastern Market, there's a vapor since he's been gone,” Girardor said. “And there's a big hole, and there's still a lot of farmers there. But they don't really do the kind of salesmanship that he would do.”
Donahue got Girardot into some of his very first markets, one being the AU Farmers’ Market.
“AU has a place in my heart,” Girardot explained. “Some of my good friends that I've made over the years from AU worked for me and stayed working for me even after they left school.”
This article was edited by Cara Halford, Tyler Davis and Abigail Turner. Copy editing done by Luna Jinks, Olivia Citarella, Ariana Kavoossi and Hannah Langenfeld.
